Today's City AM editorial by Allister Heath is a must-read. Invoking Bastiat, he says:
It is high time for a proper debate about the relationship between the individual and the state. In a classically liberal society, people’s incomes are seen as theirs, to be spent, invested or donated as they see fit, with taxation kept to the minimum necessary to provide certain services and help the poor (the size of these activities are, of course, subject to debate). The present, collectivist mood in the UK sees it differently: earnings are implicitly treated as public property, to be divided up according to what politicians see fit; tax cuts are even seen as a “cost” to the Exchequer, as if it were automatically entitled to everybody’s wealth.
How refreshing that this kind of liberalism can still be found in the British press. Read the whole thing – hopefully some of our political rulers will, too.
